NY Times calls modern factory farming methods "animal abuse"

[nankerphelge]

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/31/opinion/31sat4.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

Excerpt...

No matter what you call it, it adds up to the same thing. Millions of animals are crowded together in inhumane conditions, causing significant environmental threats and unacceptable health risks for workers, their neighbors and all the rest of us.

The astonishing increase in the number and size of confined animal operations has been spawned largely by the very structure of American farm supports, which always has been skewed in a way that concentrates farming in fewer and fewer hands. As both of these reports make clear, the so-called efficiency of industrial animal production is an illusion, made possible by cheap grain, cheap water and prisonlike confinement systems.

In short, animal husbandry has been turned into animal abuse. Manure — traditionally a source of fertilizer — has been turned into toxic waste that fouls the air and adjacent water bodies. Crowding creates health problems, resulting in the chronic overuse of antibiotics.

[Ignis]

1. Wow. Pretty strong words from the Grey Lady.

Of course, they focus on the environmental and health impacts more than the ethical ones, but that last snipped paragraph in the OP doesn't shy away from the moral cost of factory farming.

I'm off to write a letter praising them for this piece--even if it's in the Opinion ghetto.

[Tumbulu]

2. I am glad that The Union of Concerned Scientists

are now campaigning against animal confinement. The more organizations speaking up against them and rallying members to act the better.

[stuntcat]

3. if everyone could just see the 'farms'..

I'm gonna write them a thanks too, that's a good idea^^

If this was just covered more.. if everyone HAD to see exactly what goes on with all of the meat they get, it would start something. Of course some people wouldn't care but it would make an impression on most. Most people don't think twice about where their food comes from. (and I am not afraid to generalize about that)